The Coen Brothers And Their Howling Fat Men: The Supercut

Though you’ve probably seen these movies, readers, it’s worth noting that spoilers are present in the following video.

What better way to spend the celebratory day of Easter than to listen to a bunch of big dudes hollering? They’re like loud Easter eggs, really, with language just as colorful as the pastel hues of whatever vinegar-and-food coloring combination is being used. As a rather hefty kid, I used to do my own yelling about never getting any PAAS kits, and that kind of sheltered living has made me the man I am today, which luckily is worlds away from most of the men that Ethan and Joel Coen pepper their films with.

For the supercut video presented by YouTuber Ian Larsen, the focus wasn’t on any of the stylized dialogue or the clever conflicts, but on the fat men involved in these conflicts. The video features clips from films early in the brothers’ oeuvre, like Blood Simple, Barton Fink, Miller’s Crossing, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Big Lebowski, and O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Ultimately, it’s a video of fear, rage, vengeance and mild insanity and works as a symbol of cinematic catharsis. When is the last time in your life that you reacted to something with a gut-bubbling holler?

And sure, it’s fun seeing the familiar faces like Jon Polito, M. Emmet Walsh and Charles Durning, but this could have easily just been a video of John Goodman’s burly bellows, and even if it was just limited to him running down the hallway of fire from Barton Fink or
his rampantly insistent bowling alley wisdom from The Big Lebowski, and it probably wouldn’t have gotten any complaints. Well any quiet ones, anyway.